Whoops! I was trying to get back into the swing of things, wrote a wee drabble for pyre_flies, then discovered I'd lost my place; I've already written another on the theme "Marked". So, here's a second.

It was cliché, but Lulu's skin did not even seem to take note of the sun, let alone the imprint of three pilgrimages. Perhaps that accounted for her colored lips and nails, as if she were trying to blend with her tanned or battlescarred companions. Yuna's face was innocent, but there was no innocence in Lulu's artful glance.

No innocence at all when colored nails traced the grain of Auron's scars, or purple lips brushed his twisted eyelid.

They were consummate actors, but somewhere between curt words and taut silences, they had discovered the truth etched beneath their flawless masks.